Marvel Spotlight #14 (1974): Son of Satan

Steve Gerber and Jim Mooney sign on as the new creative team, and it couldn’t come soon enough. I’m not a Gary Friedrich hater, but Gerber is much better at telling offbeat stories, and Friedrich is already working on Ghost Rider so having different teams gives each of the occult books a bit of a different flavor. And losing Herb Trimpe was no loss at all. His chock-a-block style is great on Hulk, but not on this book.

Based on this first issue, it looks like Gerber wants to start writing a truly serialized story. Whereas the past stories have basically been one long origin for Son of Satan, now he can get back to business. And what is his business? Being an exorcist! Remember, that’s why Ghost Rider contacted him in the first place!

The change is basically announced on the page 2-3 spread, above, as is the essence of his existential conflict (Gerber was himself an existentialist, incidentally).

Son of Satan also gets an assistant, Katherine Reynolds, who quickly starts to see some of Hellstrom’s power.

This is a nice change from past issues, and a promising start.

Creators: Steve Gerber and Jim Mooney
Grade: C+
For the complete history of the MU, year by year, go here.